What is the difference between a believer and a fanatic?

This is something I've really been wondering about. Is a fanatic a person who is prepared and willing to go to great lengths for his/her belief without question? Well, if that's the case if one is a believer but not a fanatic - does one really believe? Is belief something that's just supposed to be in one's mind and never really acted upon? Many people consider themselves believers in God and they go to church each Sunday. Now that's all good and well, but do they really believe? I mean, really? Belief isn't based on proof, but trust in something, right? That would mean that if one really believes, then one is pretty much capable of doing anything if one feels it's based on that belief. An example. I don't believe in God, but I was part of a christian youth group when I was a kid. They arranged ski trips for kids and stuff like that. Anyway, one winter we went skiing in Norway. One evening a couple of christian norwegians came to visit and discuss christianity or whatever. It so happened that one of my friends had hurt his knee that day which came to the norwegians attention. They started praying that the knee would heal by that very evening. To me, it became fairly obvious that the norwegians where pretty much the only ones believing this was really going to happen. Well, it didn't heal that night - he didn't ski at all that whole week. I guess it could be argued why his knee didn't heal. But to me, that was kind of a wake up call that to most people there is kind of a limit to their belief.

So is that what makes someone a fanatic? That they have no limit to their belief? Or is a fanatic someone who believes really hard in something you don't?

to me, a fanatic is simply someone who doesn't let others believe something different in peace.

i fully agree Quango!

Fanatic

Believer


Nutzo

Short form of fanatic is FAN! Baseball fan, football fan, metallica fan, britney spears fan, bush fan, you name it! We're all fanatics people, well most of us!

Fanatic: Someone marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea

The thing is, the fanatic doesn't have to "believe" anything, he just has to be deeply attached to.. well anything. For example, if someone is a tattoo fanatic, he might have 155 tattoos on his body, but doesn't mean he "believes" anything about the tattoos, he's simply obsessed.

However, a believer and a fanatic can be the same thing, as for example "Fanatical Christians" or "Fanatical Muslims", where you take your BELIEF, then you obsess over it, where everyone not of the same belief is an "idiot, infidel, etc". That's fanaticism, and in fact, "FAN" is accurate in describing it. What happens to a "YANKEES FAN" when he sits in ths middle of "RED SOX FANS" crowd and says "GO YANKEES!". He doesn't go home that night!

Fanatic is someone obsessed.
Believer is someone who assumes something is true, when he has absolutely no idia, usually because he WANTS to assume it, because it sounds GOOD to him, and possibly because he's AFRAID to think otherwise under the threat of punishment, and is TEMPTED to believe in whatever it is, due to some sort of "promised reward". You can say belief is obsession, but I'd call it more of a "stagnation" where you stagnate your progress, and progress is defined by how much you LEARN (aka how much actual KNOWLEGE you obtain). The more you believe, the less you know, and this means you do not WISH to KNOW, because knowledge doesn't interest you.. your belief (aka assumption) does

That's just my 2 cents

A fanatic has an uncritical and unconditional devotion to his or her beliefs, were logic or rationality won't sway their views... aka completely brainwashed.

Believers have firm convictions, but are not necessarily void of skepticism or above questioning their own theories when faced with facts.

A cynic believes nothing without hard evidence, then still questions the factual. lol: